Travel

Madrid (2022)

Illusion and the burial of the sardine

Of course, when we were planning our days in Madrid, Nathalie also asked me what I would like to see in Madrid. In general, I’ve always been fascinated by magic shows or circus attractions – and there were plenty of both in Madrid! Unfortunately, after a short research, it turned out that the circus in Madrid is one of the last in Europe that still locks up and abuses wild animals, which we didn’t want to support, and the magicians and their shows seemed very cheap. However, we did agree on something else that I would like even more, namely illusions! (which is sort of like magic)
So the plan for the day was to go to the “Museum of Illusions”. Of course, this would not take up the whole day. It was still carnival though, so we wanted to see the “El Entierro de la Sardina” (“Funeral of the Sardine” in English) that was taking place that day.

The “El Entierro de la Sardina” represents the end of the carnival season in Spain (similar to Ash Wednesday) and is celebrated with the burial of the sardine. For this, we had to get up early and go to a certain part of Madrid that is located slightly south of the main center. The parade should start there. Along the way, we could see posters, flags, and decorated statues. However, when we arrived at the starting point of the parade, there was nobody to be seen apart from a lightly decorated car and a few men dressed in black. Only gradually did spectators come and shops also hung up the appropriate decorations. After some delay, it started and with loud music and some watching guests, the crowd moved forward. The whole parade would take several hours, so we wanted to go to the museum first and then plan something to eat. We wouldn’t join the parade again until the afternoon when it was coming to an end.

Before I tell you about the “Museum of Illusions”, I would like to mention again how the idea of visiting this museum (which was not only the alternative to the circus and magic shows) came about in the first place. In Tromsø in Norway (2021) we already wanted to go to an illusion museum. There was the “Perspective Museum”, which is why we strongly assumed that it had something to do with optical illusions and it also had top ratings. Unfortunately, we had to realize that it was “only” a museum with an exhibition about a writer and that the museum itself was only called “Perspective”. So we wanted to make up for our mistake from back then and this time visit a real illusion museum.

When we arrived at the building, we first had to reserve a time slot because, due to Corona, only a certain number of visitors per half hour were allowed in the museum. Luckily our time slot wasn’t much later and we walked around the area to pass the time. The museum itself is not very big but has an optical illusion every few meters where you could take great photos. These include a kaleidoscope, inverted or consumed rooms, various mirror constructions, or well-known images with optical illusions. It was a lot of fun going from one attraction to the next and taking photos there. The other guests and families with children were only partly a bit annoying, some of whom stuck to certain structures for a long time – but due to the limitation of the guests overall, you always found something that was free. As always, there was a souvenir shop at the entrance to the museum. But there were only simple puzzle objects and models here, which is why we didn’t buy anything here, but the funny photos were enough souvenirs.

After the museum, as planned, we only went for a small meal, since Nathalie planned to cook something larger in the evening, as usual. So we just got something warm to eat and, because we just passed it, churros with chocolate. We already knew this specialty from Peru, where we had eaten it without chocolate. Instead, they were tossed in sugar. In Madrid, churros were served with a small tub of melted chocolate in which to dip the still-warm churros – delicious!

The end of the parade “El Entierro de la Sardina” was in the western part of the city. When we got there, there were a lot more people there and camera crews as well. The streets were cordoned off and at some point, some people started playing drums and trumpets to join in the music and the holiday parade arrived and pushed the crowd down the street over a bridge. From there we went to the next metro station and drove back to our accommodation. The next and last two full days in Madrid should be used for trips to smaller nearby towns.

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